the thought of buying all the shoes I always wanted makes me feel through the roof

And except when going clothes shopping is the most exciting part of transition!

shopping for clothes

Or when you’re finally able to get the haircut you want:

Or, if you’re transitioning from female to male, having clothing with pockets and comfortable sandals!

wearing the most comfortable sandals

It is well known that women can’t ever wear clothing with pockets, or comfortable sandals, so it’s good people can undergo medical treatments and surgeries so that they can wear these things. Wait, what?

A recurring theme on this blog is the relationship between transgender identity and gender roles and stereotypes. We have seen over and over and over again that when trans people talk about how they experience being transgender, they rely heavily, if not exclusively, on gender stereotypes. From wanting to wear specific clothes as toddlers to wanting specific hair cuts as teens, to wanting specific fashion choices as an adult, all kids of superficial things are taken as evidence of some innate identity.

However, since most people agree that gender roles are not actually progressive or good, but actually restrictive and bad, there is also a rush to assure people that being transgender does not actually have anything to do with gender roles or stereotypes:

Feminists have pointed out that even if some people born with penises go on to call themselves women and “live as women”, whatever this means, they still have grown up as men, and received male socialization. This means they are likely more aggressive, more assertive, and more confident. Their male socialization makes women wary of them, because many women have very negative experiences with people who have been socialized male.

Their male socialization also means that they often have had an advantage early in life, because males are socialized to be more confident, take up more room, and to develop their skills in traditionally “male” areas.

This idea is however ridiculed by many trans activists. We see an example here:

“Transwomen internalize female socialization”, this person states. Anyone who identifies as female internalize female socialization, is the claim. The same claim is found in the webcomic “Assigned male” shown below. “Trans women don’t benefit from male socialization” it says, and explains that “as girls, they learn toxic things about femininity too”.

The claim seems to come up a lot:

“trans women internalize female socialization, and thus are women and socialized as such”.

Never mind that many, many trans people don’t realize that they are trans until they are adults. Never mind that socialization does not work that way. Most of the socialization people receive is not in the form of “this is for girls and this is for boys”. It is much more subtle; for example boys get much more attention from teachers, and the teachers are unaware of this fact themselves. Never mind that the same webcomic directly contradicts its previous statement with this panel:

“We don’t even talk the same way to children depending on the gender we perceive them to be”, the comic correctly states.

“I’m far more assertive than most girls of my personality type”, this commenter says:

And watch what happens when someone comes onto r/asktransgender to ask for clarification regarding difference between male and female brains as it relates to transgenderism. Suddenly commenters are using male and female socialization as an argument for innate, biological gender identity.

“Honestly if you’re mtf you’re raised male til you transition”, is suddenly the truth of the matter now. It seems like there are two conflicting arguments being used here, and the story changes based on what they are trying to accomplish.

Many transgender people like to remind everyone that body parts are not “inherently sexed” and that biological sex is just a social construct. The webcomic called “Assigned male” helpfully reminds us that this is so, by stating that penises and vulvas aren’t really boy’s parts or girl parts.